MASCOT COMMITTEE HAS ZOO OF CHOICES

A whole zoo of mascots parade along the sidelines of college basketball and football games.

Lions, tigers and bears are common mascots. But you also can find trolls, vixens and even banana slugs.

University of California-Santa Cruz athletic teams are known as the "Banana Slugs."

Southeast Missouri State University is looking for a mascot and you can help.

The Southeast Missourian is soliciting suggestions from you, the readers. You can fax us your suggestions or mail them to the newspaper.

Suggestions should be submitted by March 16.

The Southeast Missourian then will publish a list of the suggested mascots. The suggestions also will be passed on to a university committee, which is seeking a new mascot.

After abandoning its traditional Indian chief and princess mascots 10 years ago, the school experimented briefly with two other mascots. Both proved unpopular and were quickly dropped.

Southeast hasn't had a mascot for the past several years.

Southeast is the only school in the Ohio Valley Conference that doesn't have a mascot.

One school, Eastern Illinois, even has two mascots -- a male panther costume and a female panther costume.

The Murray State Racers have that horse costume. Eagles, a governor, a colonel, a dog, a tiger and a goggled skyhawk also can be found in OVC mascot land.

Southeast's mascot committee has recommended that the school's athletic teams keep their Indian and Otahkian nicknames.

But the committee hasn't decided yet on a mascot.

Committee members have suggested they may settle on a non-Indian mascot.

There are plenty of names they could choose from. America's college nicknames include everything from bloodhounds to blue hens.

There are buckeyes and bulldogs, bullets and bulls, dragons, drovers and ducks.

Colleges have hurricanes and humpback whales, horned frogs and hornets. They also have leathernecks, leopards, parsons, pelicans and penguins.

Pirates and praying colonels make their home on college campuses. Sabers and sailfish, scorpions and senators are college nicknames. So too are spiders and squirrels.

There are thunderbirds and a thundering herd. Tigers and Trojans abound.

Vanguards and vulcans are less common college nicknames. So too are wasps, waves, whitecaps and zips.

When it comes to college nicknames and mascots, even a banana slug can be popular.

IN SEARCH OF SEMO's MASCOT

Fax your ideas to: Mascots 334-7288

Or mail your ideas to: Mascots

P.O. Box 699

Cape Girardeau, MO 63702-0699

Deadline is Sunday, March 16